Zombies and Confessions
by jimmynovakuumcleaner
Summary: Set in the bad future timeline. Brady and Owain are surrounded by a group of Risen while Inigo and Gerome are elsewhere. They thought they'd killed them all, but did they really?


_If it seems like Owain's acting ooc here, just remember that's he's a lot more serious in the future. Of course, Brady's still a crybaby._

* * *

"Hey, Owain. How much longer d'ya think Inigo and Gerome are gonna take gettin' rid of those Risen?" Brady asked the companion to his right. Rain was pouring down heavily, and they had both taken shelter in the lower branches of a particularly leafy tree to avoid getting soaked, while their other friends had gone off to take care of a fairly small horde of Risen they had insisted they could handle alone.

"I dunno..." Owain sighed, leaning back against the trunk of the tree, "They've been gone a while though. We should probably go and check on them."

"I'm kinda worried. It ain't like them to take this long..." Brady mumbled, preparing to jump down from the tree. But then he froze. "Oh, crap."

"What? What is it?" Owain peered over his friend's shoulder, and directed his gaze to where Brady was pointing.

"Risen. A hell of a lot of 'em, too. Dammit, how'd we let ourselves get surrounded like this?" One Entombed attempted to scale the tree to reach the survivors, but Owain cut its ascent short with a single slash of his sword, sending it tumbling down towards the other monsters in two parts.

"They don't look that tough to me!" he smirked, "Just watch them quake in fear upon seeing the divine combination of Mystletainn and I!" And with that, the swordsmaster vaulted off of the branch and onto the damp forest floor, sword in hand.

"I keep tellin' ya, that's not really- Aww, we ain't got time for this!" Brady said, before grabbing his Killer Axe and jumping down after him.

* * *

They fought side by side, covering each other's weaknesses with the skill and ease of a pair who had survived in this way for a very long time, parrying and landing blow after blow, until the last of the Risen had been slain. Surveying the piles and piles of dead-again zombies surrounding them, Brady wiped the zombie blood and sweat off his forehead and tossed his now broken axe aside.

"Ha! They were no match for us after all!" Owain exclaimed, sheathing his sword. He kicked aside a few corpses and found some concoctions and elixirs for his troubles, presumably stolen from the nearby village.

It was then that he heard the scream.

Quickly unsheathing his sword again, he turned around to find the source of the scream; it was Brady, backed up against a tree by two more Risen, these ones dressed as Assassins. From the oozing slashes that covered them, Owain figured they had only pretended to be dead in order to catch them off guard.

"Owain, get the hell outta here now! Go find Inigo and Gerome!" he yelled, bravely trying to block a swipe at him with his Physic staff. It deflected the worst of the blow, but it snapped from the impact, and the monster's blade caught his cheek, from which blood started to trickle out.

"Are you crazy? No way!"

The two Risen geared themselves up for another attack, and Brady closed his eyes, bracing himself. He only had one Mend staff left, and there was no use prolonging the inevitable.

"Heh, this is it for me. Looks like I'll joining Ma an' Pops quicker than I thought..."

"No you won't!" Brady looked up in surprise, just in time to see the other man cleave through the two Risen he thought would end his life.

"Dumbass! Why didn't ya listen to me?"

"What, and ignore a friend I could easily help?" Owain started towards him, but his leg buckled and he collapsed onto the ground with a gasp of pain.

"H-hey, are you alright?" Brady asked worriedly, getting his remaining Mend staff out and kneeling down next to him. There was a huge tear in his trousers over the knee, which was bleeding profusely from a deep cut.

"I'm fine! I guess one of those Assassin zombie guys got me." He replied through gritted teeth, "It'll take more than this to kill the mighty Owain though!"

Mumbling under his breath, Brady pointed the staff at his friend's knee and watched as the wound rapidly closed up.

"There. That should be okay now."

"Thanks- Hey Brady, are you crying?" Owain sat upright to get a better view, and saw that he was indeed crying.

"...No."

"Is your cheek hurting? I found some medicine over there that you can-"

"It's you, moron! Ya could have gotten yourself killed tryin' to save me like that!"

"I'm not gonna watch anyone else I love die if I can help it," Owain sighed, rubbing the medicine he found into Brady's wound, "especially not you. So stop crying and just accept my help, okay?"

"W-what? Love? Where'd that come from?"

Realising what he'd just let slip, Owain looked down out of embarrassment.

"Haha, I think you misheard me there! I actually said... dove! Yeah, dove, that's right!"

"That don't even make sense! C'mon, tell me what you meant by that!"

Owain winced. Fighting hordes of the undead daily was certainly something that took an immense amount of bravery, but confessing to his best friend that he loved him? That was something else entirely.

"...Okay, fine." Steeling his courage, Owain leaner over and gave the other man a quick kiss on the lips, "There, now you know. I love you. Does that answer your question?"

Brady stared.

"Huh, I didn't think you'd feel the same. Oh well, let's go and find- ACK!"

Owain never got to finish his sentence, because Brady had tackled him to the floor with a giant hug, crying all over again.

"Um, Brady? Why are you crying again? Did you get hurt somewhere else?"

"I'm cryin' 'cause I'm happy, idiot." He laughed, ruffling Owain's hair, "I love ya too."

"Whoa, what happened here?" The two hastily sprung apart at the sound of Inigo's voice.

"I-Inigo? When did you get back?" Owain asked, hoping to avoid the question.

"Just a few seconds ago," He replied, "Gerome's over there saddling up Minerva to take us all back to Ylisstol. But wow, that's a lot of Risen! Did you kill them all by yourselves?"

"Yeah, that's right! They were no match for us!" Owain responded, his usual cheerful demeanor back when he realised what he was referring to.

"We need to get going now." Gerome called from behind Inigo, "Minerva says she can smell more Risen coming."

"Ah, right. Come on then, let's report back to Lucina!" Inigo said, beckoning for the other two to follow him. Exchanging a glance, they let Inigo lead them back to Minerva.


End file.
